The Best Present Came Late

Now isn't this just something else again? I thought so too. What an amazing Christmas present.

And from one of my clients. Need I say more. P.S. I did like the mug I rec'd from my Grands with their mugs on it! But come on, get real, look at this

What I Got For Christmas

I wanted more. I wanted a diamond necklace and new boots. I wanted (two) orphaned children. I wanted/needed an updated wardrobe. I wanted new jama's. I wanted/needed a vacation. I wanted love. I wanted my boys all home for the Holidays. I wanted a duplex, and yes with checks. I wanted a years worth of toilet paper and baggies. (Just a "thing" with me)
I wanted new carpet. I wanted updated furniture. I wanted a home big enough for a few more animals. (Don't worry, I am not cat-lady material) I wanted a friend to share life with. I wanted a new mattress for my back. I wanted a new car for my daughter. I wanted homes for the homeless. I wanted a flat screen TV and an HD radio. I wanted a fancy scanner that scans fifty pictures at a time. I wanted a wicker hanging swing for my porch come Spring. I wanted a massage chair for my back. I wanted a dentist who takes payments. I wanted a face lift, mini one would do for now. I wanted to take writing classes so I can work on my book. I want to finalize the other book, Crestview,The Road Back. I wanted new shoes called Nuots. Something like that. I wanted security. A hotel room with a whirlpool and big TV and no where to go for three days or more. Ballroom Dance lessons, (like my back would eat that mess right up!) I wanted more time. I wanted a decent haircut. I wanted allot of things most people want.
But I got these socks from someone that works for me... bless her heart, she ran to the dollar store and got me these socks and two candles! Damn I am lucky. And I got an all natural pine needle sachet from my son in Vegas. (It is nice) And, and, oh a MUG with my Grands Mugs on it. A Bethlehem flower from my friend....and, and, and....and..... I think that 's it. Wait, I did get $50 from my brother and sister in law. That is out of five children, six Grand children, and so on... Wow it was a great Christmas for me wasn't it? And yes I did give.... maybe it'll come back in other ways they say. And then a-gain....maybe I got more than some. But then a-GAIN, maybe it's time for a change. Ya-think? p.s. I hope no one read this before I say how much I truly appreciated these one dollar socks! Someone went out of their way on a busy day for me. It doesn't matter what they cost. That is exactly the sweet part of the whole discussion.

Blizzards and Not the Ice Cream Kind...

This is tonight while trying to get home from work, the grocery store, and one Christmas errand. The snow was blowing sideways... of which my new Smart Phone did not catch the fullness of. It is Wisconsin! And it is December 23rd. The National Weather Service has said we are getting sleet, snow, sleet, ice, snow and more ice...until late tomorrow. That means if you want Christmas dinner you had to get whatever you needed NOW, Tonight in the sleet, ice, snow and more ice. Sure no problem. And if you weren't finished Christmas shopping, well, you had to get it done TONIGHT in the sleet, snow, ice and more ice. As you see I found myself behind a large snow plow. I am home now, with enough food for the dog, cat, me and Bree, and maybe one more visitor..... Merry Christmas

It's Insane O'clock

Isn't this disgusting? Half a tree! And it isn't like its not noticeable totally...great grammar going on here.

It's five a.m. and I have been up since three a.m. Why? Because I had a bad dream, wha wha... And then some sort of what some would call OCD kicked in and I couldn't stop singing that Christmas song about Barnie and Ben! It's still there two hours later. Oh yeah, "It's beginning to Look Allot like Christmas." How could I forget considering I have been singing it in my head all this time doi. So...I made a pot of coffee, a two cupper that is, no no, it is a four cupper?? Whatever, I drank it all, took a shower, did my nails, cleaned my bedroom, and now I am eating Tuna Casserole and telling someone in the world all about this little mess in my head. Not to mention that half blacked out Christmas tree.

As you do not know, the lights on the top of my pre lit tree went OUT! Total Blackout! I thought when one went out the rest were supposed to keep going. Isn't this 2009?
I was in great hopes the plug came out somewhere inside this fully decorated deal...but no such luck. All plugged in and no go on the top. So I just pull the mini blinds to that spot so no one outside can see it. But we can see it! My friend says to just string a stand up top....are u nuts? Like I said, a fully decorated tree. This year may be the first year my tree comes down the day after Christmas. Anyway it looks like Busch Gardens in here...so many plants and no where for them to go. You see the Grand daughter recently moved into the spare room which meant everything had to come out. Well I only live in three rooms anymore. One great one with a bedroom off each side. Hence a garden of greens around my Christmas Tree. Pretty hilarious actually. Maybe I should have just hung some balls on the plants this time. Now that would have really been a "Bah humbug." I just had a chocolate chip cookie. I think when a person is very tired their brain calls out for food trying to spunk the body back up...or the brain and the body. But this is nuts. This is like a bad B movie called, "Looking for Food (Love) in all the Wrong Places!" It's not working and possibly I should stop eating now considering so far its been all carbs! Eating carbs at five a.m. while watching a half blacked out Christmas tree, singing about Barnie and Ben, and now trying to stay awake to go to work two jobs, then an MRI, then Post Office and somewhere in all that taking the dog out several times. Maybe a nap??? Doubtful.

Grandma Tillie Jungbluth's Pffefer-nuts

I have written blogs before about my Grannie Tillie and how good she was to me, how she talks to me from another place or space or dimension. How I can smell her sometimes. She was good to me. She was never anything but a poor farm woman. She milked cows, made cheese and butter from an authentic "huge contraption" called a creme separator. (top photo because I cant get it to move down!) Grandma Till also raised chickens and geese and ducks and she baked cookies. The best cookies ever. She let me eat as many eggs as I wanted, and she hugged me all the time. When I hear the crows I am reminded of the sounds that woke me when I spent the night with her. (Oh and those dark green window shades too.) One would think evil, but it wasn't. Just crows on the farm. eewww. Back to cookies and her life. She told me she always wanted to be somebody. But, that she didn't know how.

So this year she will be somebody all over the United States of America. Grandma Tillie's traditional family Pffefer-nut cookies will and are being shipped all over the country to different relatives and they are under glass! Glass pickle jars that is. I have a friend that has a printing business called Tuxedo Printing, Madison, Wisconsin... and on a minutes notice, because the idea came to me in just about that fast a time, he made me those great labels in the above photo, just for Grandma Till.

I hope she is smiling and not thumping me for not getting enough flour in the dough. You see that 's her secret. These German cookies are to be rock hard and then dropped into hot coffee, let to sit a bit, spooned out to melt in one's mouth. Black strap pure molasses, corn syrup, peanuts, anise, and so on.... They are as amazing as she was. Merry Christmas Tillie, you are somebody special.

We Got Ed!

Today has been straight out of Hellie! You know that place where shit happens. That place where you try to crawl out of a sand pit! Try that one and get back to me. Nasty people "pretending," humm, to be dogs biting you. Or wolves in sheep's clothing pretending to be what they are not and trying to take allot of your green paper. Cars, alternators, wreckers, liars, cheaters, and baking cookies while all this is going on. Youth and old age (The Grand and I) working together to figure it out. And we shall! The answer after a day of hellie is .........WE GOT ED! Better said, WE HAVE ED! Ed recently bought a Meineke Store in Sun Prairie, Wisconsin. He is a real authentic person. He used to take care of my Dodge Intrepid at a Madison Meineke before he "stepped up" and got his own franchise. And since then I gave my Grand Daughter that same Dodge Intrepid he had taken under his "wing." She is only 18, works at Hooters and needs that car. Since she moved in with me the blessed car has decided it needed four new tires, a battery, and now an alternator. Jeez! I already put over $7,000 in that little sweetie. Bless the G daughter, she is a bit overwhelmed at paying back hundreds of cash flow....but then what a lesson to get out of the way ........ We both had an extremely stressful day asking the Great Gma (not me) for help with this issue... That was no go! So we kept making cookies for Christmas gifts and after HOURS of true scary stress something told me we were OK... cause we got Ed! Ed felt comfortable telling me he had a week out of effing hell also. And I thought we had it bad....after hearing only a couple of his stories I went to my sweet Grand daughters bedroom door, knocked, and opened it, and said, "You know, I think Ed had a worse week that we had today." She agreed ... I said, " We will be fine, because we got Ed." He cares...and he will be alright also because he cares.... and its only green paper... p.s. You cant imagine the peace in this house even though the lights under the Angel, on the top half of our pre- lit tree, went out last night. Imagine that.

Szymanowski Symphonies #2 and #3

Ah yes, doesn't that sound Symphonatic! I have a client that usually puts a classical CD on while we are at his home and I usually enjoy it. But this! Not! I thought I should lose my mind. I handled the Szymanowski Symphonies #2 and #3 for two hours plus! Never ending and surely like Chinese and Bush torture and beyond. The music should be used for torture and only torture. I could hear the talent but also wondered how the musicians could even think to read their music. Wait, maybe it was like a drug to them.... as the notes moved and the sound grew so did their intensities. For them it was like fireworks or like, sex.... making love with instruments... starting out slowing and moving to the ultimate climax.... except I don't want to listen to anyone making love so there you have it. It was NOISE to me...Loud noisy noise ...like starting to pull fingernails out, or bright flashing white lights close to your eyes, or a charlie horse that wont go away for six hours, or plucking out all your eyebrows, and so on. That is why I wrote down the name of the CD so I could share its pain with all of you. Szymanowski's torture CD. My Tuesday nightmare in the morning. Nothing peaceful and soothing about that CD... never to hear it again. And I do have classical class. Just don't care for noise. It was like symbols over and over and over....which sent me into hate and anger. Which took some time to recover from and find my way out of.....like a bad clown, or danger. I'm OK now...it was weeks ago.. (Ya think?)